Delhi 1

If you think Delhi is just filmmakers muse,think again. The Capitals white colonial colonnade,Connaught Place,is celebrated in the exhibition Connaught Place: The WhyNot Place at the Religare Arts.i gallery. Seventy-four works,installations as well as canvases,by 24 artists have sprung from a summer residency. Says curator Nicholas Hoffland: For many decades,central Delhi has been the nerve centre of the Capital. But the significance of this urban space gradually declined with the commercial development of other parts such as South and North Delhi and the residential boom. The exhibition examines the loss of vitality of CP that used to be a bustling market where people thronged on weekends, he says. While artist Gagandeep Singhs Welcome to India is a beautiful sketch of a somber soldier balancing a sword in one hand and a lovely bejewelled girl in his lap,Delhi-based artist Sanjay Sundarams Delhi is drowned in a huddle of buildings and an eerie red haze in Red Weather. However,Diana Mahapatra burrows into the hectic life of the marginalised in Delhi by showing a girl walking the tightrope. Other participating artists are the city-based Jenson Anto and Pratibha Singh. The works begin at Rs 25,000 and go up to Rs 7 lakh.